Marth Discovers A Mirror
by PalindromeIsntOne
Summary: AU One-Shot. Marth is in a world where mirrors are rare and expensive. He receives one as a gift one day but what does he think of it? Written diary-style from Marth's POV.


**Hello! This is something a little random that I thought up the other day. Marth is in a world where mirrors are rare, expensive and unheard of items, and describes what he thinks when he gets one for the first time. Written diary style. Enjoy and review!**

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_September 11th_

Dear diary,

I am not normally one for keeping any sort of journal, but I find I have an unusual incident I wish to record. I asked my servant what he would recommend to fit this purpose, and he suggested a diary.

Today I returned from my Yoga class with Zelda to find an unusual parcel waiting for me in my room. My servant informed me that a 'kind man' had sent it to me. He said it had been checked for danger and then re-wrapped for my pleasure. Checked for danger, indeed. More likely he was only satisfying his own curiosity.

Alone, I opened, or rather, re-opened, the parcel, which was slightly taller than me and rectangular in shape, and found myself looking at some sort of shiny window. I can think of no other way to describe it. I have never seen one before. Through it I could see a pretty blue-haired girl, who looked back at me rather vulnerably. She was standing in a room, but I could only see a section of it through the window. It seemed familiar.

"Hello?" I said. The girl said the same in unison. I tried again, to the same effect. I didn't try again. How dare she try to talk over me? I was royalty, no less. I put the window in one corner, to look at later, and went to the vanity table to brush my hair.

Later I asked my servant how I might record such an unusual happening, and he suggested a diary, as mentioned, and after making him fetch me one immediately I wrote the above.

_September 12th_

Dear diary,

Today I woke up, and on sitting upright in bed I found myself staring at someone else, sitting in another bed opposite me! I was quite alarmed. It took a moment for my head to clear completely of sleep and shock, and I realised that it was the shiny window I had received the other day, but it had been moved from the corner where I had left it. Quickly getting out of bed I went to examine the window, and the girl did the same in her room. Upon reaching the window, I noticed a most horrifying thing – she was wearing my silk pyjamas!

"How dare you!" I cried. And strangely, she cried the same back at me at the same moment. I was most thoroughly offended. Not only had she stolen my pyjamas, she had had the audacity to wear them and sleep in them in the room beyond the window! I reached out to grab her by the neck and teach her a lesson with my sword, but my hand hit the window without passing through. Furious, I searched for the catch to open it so that I might seize her, but I could find none. I searched for several minutes, and each time I looked back at the window she looked straight back at me, frustrated. I assume it was because she knew she was going to be caught and there was nothing she could do about it. I was most surprised that she didn't run.

After several minutes of failing to open the window I summoned my servant to open it for me, but as he was coming I noticed that _I _was wearing my silk pyjamas at that very moment – how could she have taken them? I had them! It looked like this girl had the same pyjamas as me. When my servant came I dismissed him, now merely puzzled. The girl looked puzzled too. It occurred to me that if we could both see each other's bedrooms then we would have no privacy if we stood in any part of our rooms that was in front of the window. With this in mind, I moved the window right to the very edge of my room. Then I got changed on the other side of the room and ignored the strange window for the rest of the day.

_September 13th_

Dear diary,

I have come to a most confusing state of affairs over this shiny window. For if you look through a window and you see a garden, you can go into the garden and look back through the window into the room, can you not? But with this shiny window it seems impossible to reach this other room. If I walk around the back of the thing it is a dull grey and I see nothing. The room then, must be entirely contained in this very thin shiny window. But how is that possible? How have they trapped this girl and room inside this tiny shiny window? I ask my servant, but he is stupid and knows nothing. I think I will fire him. I have asked him for the address of the man that sent the shiny window to me so that I might ask him about it, and he is off fetching it for me.

Meanwhile, I have noticed a striking similarity between my world and the world of the girl in the window's. Her room is identical to mine, except everything is the wrong way round. She wears the same clothes as me. She is royal then, possibly a princess or perhaps a very young queen. The person that trapped her in this shiny window must be very cruel indeed. Or perhaps the person is the same man that gave me this shiny window. If it is so, I must punish him. It is not right to keep a girl trapped in a room like that. They must have used black magic to do such a thing, and black magic is punishable by death.

_September 14th_

Dear diary,

I have arrived at another theory regarding the shiny window. What if it is indeed a window, and not a cage as I hypothesised yesterday? This is strange thinking indeed, I know, because if you walk around the other side of a window you can see back through it, and with this shiny window you cannot. But if there is some magic afoot, and if I can twist my mind enough, I can just about believe that it is a true window and a true place I am looking into. In which case the girl must also have a window exactly the same as me, and the two are linked somehow by magic so that we can see each others' rooms. It certainly makes a little more sense than the idea that her and a whole room can fit in such a thin rectangular thing.

My servant has failed to find the man's address. He says the man is on the move. I told him to search harder, for I must question this man about the gift he gave me. My servant says he is impossible to track, but I don't believe him. I told him he was lazy and had one of the guards whip him. I also told him to dye his hair blue, like mine. I cannot stand having of a redhead working for me any longer.

_September 15th_

Dear diary,

My useless servant finally managed to track the man to an inn a few miles from the river, but he warned me that the man doesn't intend to be there long. It is no matter, I wrote the letter first thing this morning and sent it off by express royal mail. It shall probably reach him before midday, and I will expect the man's visit tomorrow..

Knowing that the mystery of the girl and the shiny window will surely be explained to me soon, I have put that side of the mystery on hold. Instead, I spent a good hour just looking at her. She is exactly my height. She has my hair colour. And she looks sad. Not outwardly sad, just inwardly, like she might be lonely. I don't like that look on her, I think it is weak. Royalty do not bother themselves with things as trivial as loneliness. There are balls and courts to attend, such a thought is ridiculous. But then she is a girl, and I guess I cannot expect too much of her. Maybe she hasn't found a suitor yet. I have tried asking her questions, but she only asks them back at me, so now I just look at her in silence. She looks like she might be arrogant and commanding, but there is something in her body language which tells me it is a show. What, I want to ask her, is your problem? Does she wish for a better life? Life doesn't get any better than royalty! But she doesn't look satisfied with her life. I have decided I don't like this girl. Whoever she is, she is someone that not only doesn't appreciate the life of royalty, but even fails to truly _act_ like she appreciates it. Her eyes are too telling, she is useless at hiding her secret emptiness. I don't like the look of her. After the man has come tomorrow I think I will throw the thing away.

_September 16th_

Dear diary,

Today the man who gave me the shiny window arrived at the palace, and was shown into the largest reception by my servant. At exactly 10am, I entered the room to greet him.

"Your highness." He bowed, kissing my hand. He was taller than me, with short blue hair. I asked him what his gift was.

"It is a Mirror," he told me.

"And what _is_ that, exactly?" I asked him.

"I do not know, your highness. I bought it only as the most expensive gift I could find."

"Speak plainly – how did you acquire it?"

"On my travels I found a stall owned by a most peculiar man. On the stall were many precious stones and exotic crystals that I recognised, and I knew at once this was a very expensive, extraordinary stall. And the most extraordinary, special thing he said he had was this Mirror. And it occurred to me that this could be the gift I had always been searching for to give you, and so I bought it with all the money I had on me."

"You speak well," I told him. And he did. Not many men can speak so clearly in front of me – they stammer and mumble.

"What is your name?" I asked him.

"Ike," he told me.

"Well I confess that it is an extraordinary gift," I began, not wanting to offend him. "There is a girl in it, and a room, and possibly another world, all through this 'Mirror', as you call it."

"Really?"

"Indeed." I looked at his eager face. He looked like a genuine, open sort of person, who only remained formal because he had to, not because he wanted to. I thought of him, and of the girl in the mirror, and I thought, all of a sudden, how good they would be together. He would be good for her, somehow I knew it instinctively. But how would I get him into her world? I sighed. I couldn't give the Mirror back to him – he would take offence. But I didn't want to keep it – I didn't like the girl in that other room, linked to me by whatever magic.

I said goodbye to Ike at 10.10am and he left. Then I returned to my room and faced the girl one last time. She looked even sadder than before. She really needed someone like Ike to cheer her up. I shuddered. I didn't like the way she was looking at me, pleading. In an impulse I took the Mirror, lifted it high and then threw it down at the ground. It crashed magnificently into many sharp pieces. But in each of them, to my horror, the girl was still there – in each piece I could see her face looking back at me, horrified at what I had done. I fled the room.

Now it is evening and I am sitting at the base of the fountain in the garden. My servant removed the bits of Mirror from my room and took them away. I am glad that it is gone. And yet in a way I forgive the girl and her pathetic attempt at hiding her vulnerability. I forgive her the phoney frontier that hides her loneliness, the way her princesses' arrogance only just masks her search for something better.

For some reason I can't explain, she reminds me of myself.


End file.
